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Get Started with KX Delta Platform

KX Delta Platform is an enterprise-grade data capture, analysis and visualization platform built on kdb+, the world's leading column-oriented time-series database.

At its core is KX Control, a client-server application that allows you to design, build and deploy high-performance data capture systems. Key capabilities include:

  • High-performance in-memory and on-disk historical databases
  • Redundancy and fault tolerance
  • Real-time and historical data analysis
  • Query filtering, alerting, reporting and visualization

KX Delta Platform is used across a range of industries including algorithmic trading, stock market analysis, predictive analytics, scientific analysis, and embedded sensor data capture.

This guide gets you from a fresh environment to a working, verified installation, then walks you through a first worked example.

How this guide is organized

Follow the sections in order to progress from installation through to a working telemetry application with live visualized data.

Prerequisites

Before installing KX Delta Platform, confirm that your environment is supported and that you have the required licenses.

Operating systems

See Supported operating systems for details.

This guide demonstrates the simplest deployment model using:

  • Windows 11
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

You may also deploy KX Delta Platform on other supported Linux environments.

Licensing

You will need two licenses:

  • kx.lic — enables the underlying kdb+ engine
  • .delta.lic — enables KX Delta Platform

Note

The .delta.lic license must match a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) configured on the host system. For example, yourhostname.yourdomain.com.

There is no Community Edition or personal evaluation version of KX Delta Platform. For commercial trials, contact sales@kx.com.

Environment setup

Environment used in this guide

The steps in this guide were written and tested on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS running under Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows 11. If you are on a supported Linux distribution directly, the steps are identical — WSL is not a requirement.

If you are using WSL, install it from the Microsoft Store and choose a supported Linux distribution.

Deployment mode

The deployment configuration used throughout this guide is Single

For additional deployment configurations, see Deployment modes.

Installation

Pre-install configuration

Before installation, update your /etc/hosts file with the hostname and domain used by your .delta.lic license.

Add the following entry underneath the localhost line:

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.1.1   yourhostname.yourdomain.com   yourhostname

Example:

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.1.1   A-LPTP-12345.kx.com   A-LPTP-12345

This step is essential. The hostname configured in /etc/hosts must match the hostname embedded in the .delta.lic file. If they do not match, the platform installation will fail.

Once the hosts file is configured, ensure all prerequisite software has been installed in your WSL environment.

Install KX Delta Platform

After receiving the KX Delta Platform installation package, follow the installation guide for a Single deployment:

Verify the installation

A successful installation presents the KX Delta Platform home page at:

http://localhost:8080

If this page loads successfully, the platform is installed and running correctly.

You are now ready to build your first KX Delta Platform application.

Start KX Delta Platform

If KX Delta Platform has already been installed and you need to restart it, run the startup script from the installation directory:

cd ~/kxinstall/delta-bin/bin
./startup.sh

Alternatively, run:

~/kxinstall/delta-bin/bin/startup.sh

After the startup process completes, open http://localhost:8080 to access the KX Delta Platform home page.

Note

The installation path may differ depending on your deployment and installation choices. Adjust the path as required for your environment.

Next steps

Try a worked tutorial. The Aircraft Telemetry tutorial demonstrates how to build a simple telemetry data capture and visualization system using KX Delta Platform.